By John Mack Freeman
A jury returned a mixed verdict in the trial over whether the effort to repeal Houston’s equal rights ordinance (HERO) were improper.
A little back story: the city passed HERO last year by an 11-6 vote that included protections for people due to sexual orientation and gender identity. Although religious exemptions exist in the bill, many conservative activists vowed to repeal the ordinance. They submitted petitions well over the legal requirement of 17,269, but the city attorney found that a vast majority of the signatures were either fraudulent, handled inappropriately, or did not meet appropriate standards. The city attorney and mayor rejected the petition; the petitioners then sued the city.
“Harrison contends the group is more than 10,000 signatures below the threshold. He said the jury’s ruling that 12 of 13 circulators in question submitted pages containing forgery and that some high-volume circulators did not properly sign the pages they collected bodes well for the city. The law’s conservative opponents, however, maintained they would prevail when the judge begins his review, saying he has the power to reject some of the jury’s findings.
Lawyer Andy Taylor cited the jury’s conclusion that none of the 13 circulators in question submitted pages containing fraud as a victory. And on the big-ticket question of whether or not 98 different circulators correctly “signed and subscribed” the pages they submitted, Taylor said he was encouraged by the 33 signatures gatherers the jury found had done so.”
The judge in this case is not bound by the jury’s decision, and he will begin counting valid signatures next week. An appeal from the losing side is all but certain.
